Gabriel Angelos
Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens with his Daemonhammer God-Splitter]] Gabriel Angelos is the current Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens Space Marine Chapter and former Captain of that Chapter's 3rd Company. Angelos was recently responsible for slaying the Chapter's former Chapter Master and Chief Librarian, Azariah Kyras, who had become a pawn of Chaos. Angelos has been responsible for some of the most notable events in the Blood Ravens' recent history, including the battles against the Forces of Chaos on Tartarus, Lorn V and and the defeat of a splinter Tyranid Hive Fleet and Chaos invasion of the Sub-sector Aurelia of the Korianis Sector, the Chapter's primary recruiting grounds for new Blood Ravens Neophytes. Angelos and his faction of the Blood Ravens managed to defeat those Blood Ravens elements led by Kyras who had fallen to Chaos, saving the settled worlds of the Sub-sector Aurelia from a regional Exterminatus order at the hands of the Ordo Hereticus' Inquisitor Adrastia. As a Space Marine Captain, he wielded a Power Sword and a Bolt Pistol, but over the course of his different campaigns he upgraded his personal wargear and now wields the Master Crafted Daemonhammer Godsplitter, slaying Mankind's enemies with this mighty Force Weapon despite not being a psyker himself. Gabriel Angelos is a typical Astartes: proud, valiant, faithful, protective of his Battle-Brothers and trusted allies and the bane of any who dares stand against the Blood Ravens. However, he carries a guilty conscience for destroying his homeworld of Cyrene in an Exterminatus action and agonises over this part of his past continuously, though he rarely speaks of it to others. Only his fellow Battle-Brothers of the Blood Ravens truly understand his feelings on the matter. Like most Imperials, he loathes and greatly distrusts aliens; it is for this reason he displayed incredible disdain for the Aeldari in his initial encounters with their Farseer Macha. However, over time, his disdain for them gradually lessened as he realised the Aeldari of the Craftworlds and his Chapter shared a common goal. History Cyrene of the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company]] Like many of the Blood Ravens, Gabriel was born on the planet of Cyrene, from whence the Chapter often drew its Neophytes. He had grown up on Cyrene with the Blood Ravens' Librarian Isador Akios, whom he trusted above all other Battle-Brothers in the Chapter because of their childhood friendship. Unfortunately, during the Blood Ravens' campaign on the planet Tartarus, Akios was corrupted by an agent of Chaos and later betrayed his longtime friend and the entire Chapter. Gabriel was an accomplished leader of his peers before he even entered his teen years, and passed the Blood Trials set by the Blood Ravens Chaplains as an Aspirant. Many standard years later, with an entire company of Blood Ravens under his command, Gabriel returned to Cyrene, to preside over the Blood Trials and recruit new members into the Chapter. But Gabriel found something very wrong during the trials, and cut them short. He quickly returned to his Strike Cruiser, and sent a coded signal out of the system. Within solar months of the signal's transmission, ships of the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus and the Imperial Navy appeared over Cyrene, executing an Exterminatus order bombarding it for a solar week straight with Cyclonic Torpedoes until nothing on the planet remained alive. All records of the incident, and Gabriel's message to the Inquisition, have been sealed, but Gabriel himself carried the guilt of his actions with him forevermore, particularly during the battles fought on the planet Tartarus. The reason for Gabriel's guilt was simple. When the Imperial fleet had arrived in orbit above Cyrene, it had first despatched a full Brotherhood of the Grey Knights, alongside a detachment of Storm Troopers and the Blood Ravens already present to cleanse the suspected Chaos infestation. But what they discovered was not the usual forms of Chaos corruption but a world in the midst of a great cultural change, ready to throw off the shackles of the Imperial Creed and embrace forbidden ideas such as planetary democracy, free trade with xenos species, and allowing psykers to practice their powers unrestricted while living among the population without stigma or being handed over to the Black Ships. Gabriel assisted the Grey Knights, the Imperial Guardsmen and his brethren as they began to cleanse the world of its Heretics, but he ordered one squad of Blood Ravens led by Sergeant Ulrey to search for one individual in particular -- his father, Esmond Angelos. A former soldier of the Astra Militarum, Gabriel believed that his father would always have remained a staunch defender of the Emperor's values no matter what insanity the rest of Cyrene had chosen to embrace. He intended to find his father and rescue him before the inevitable claimed Cyrene. But to his utter shock, when he finally located his father, he learned that Esmond not only supported the growing rebellion against the Imperium, but was recognised as one of the foremost leaders of the movement for political change. Esmond had come to despise the Imperium for many reasons, but the fact that his own son had been claimed as a Space Marine was high atop his list of grievances. Esmond cursed Gabriel for having become the Emperor's butcher and declared that he wished his son had died in childbirth with his mother rather than serve the immoral cause of the Imperium. Realising that his homeworld was lost in the sight of the Emperor, Gabriel whispered a final prayer for Cyrene and then executed the Heretic who had once been his father with a bolt to the head. The remaining Imperial forces withdrew and the world was subjected to Exterminatus before its dangerous ideas could infect any more of the Emperor's domain. Tartarus ]] It was on the forsaken world of Tartarus that Gabriel was to undergo the true test of his limits, as he had to both stall an unstoppable Ork invasion long enough to evacuate the Imperial citizens from the planet, while simultaneously seeking out and eradicating the forces of the Alpha Legion's Chaos Space Marines on the planet, led by the Chaos Lord Bale and the Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr. The forces of Chaos were searching for an ancient artefact of Chaos Undivided called the Maledictum, and the sorcerer Sindri managed to corrupt the Chapter Librarian Isador Akios into betraying his fellow Blood Ravens. Gabriel, haunted by his guilty conscience, nonetheless executed Isador for heresy and went on to lead the Blood Ravens against Chaos. He slew Bale in a duel and eventually helped defeat Sindri when the sorcerer used the Maledictum to transform himself into a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Gabriel destroyed the Maledictum after the battle, thinking to eradicate the Chaos threat posed by the artefact once and for all, but instead released a Greater Daemon of Khorne from its prison, as foreseen by the Aeldari Farseer Macha of the Biel-Tan Craftworld who had aided in fighting the daemon. Farseer Macha had warned him not to destroy the Maledictum but he had proceeded to smash it with Godsplitter, a Daemonhammer given to him by the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Mordecai Toth who also arrived on Tartarus to seek out the source of the Chaos corruption that was affecting the world. Godsplitter had been forged from the fragments of an Aeldari Avatar of Khaine's sword and so was a potent psychically-charged weapon against the daemonic entities of the Warp. He escaped Tartarus before the ensuing Warp storm trapped him there, and has vowed to defeat the new Chaos threat he himself unleashed upon the galaxy. Rahe's Paradise Gabriel Angelos in the field.]] Shortly after the battles on Tartarus concluded, Angelos travelled to the world of Rahe's Paradise, where he attempted to conduct the Blood Trials to recruit Neophytes for the Chapter. At first all seemed routine (save for Gabriel's strange premonitions of an Aeldari invasion), but soon after the discovery of an ancient tablet from the time of the Horus Heresy that possessed both Imperial and Aeldari script and indicated cooperation between the Imperium and the Aeldari on the world millennia before, conflict erupted. Aeldari Rangers from the Biel-Tan Craftworld conducted multiple hit-and-run attacks focusing exclusively on the psykers of the Blood Ravens Chapter and the potential psyker Neophytes among the Blood Trial Aspirants, and Gabriel met with Farseer Macha once more. She revealed that the Aeldari had killed the psykers to prevent the breaking of Lsanthranil's Shield; an Aeldari artefact that generated the illusion of a large Aeldari psychic presence on the planet. This would prevent the awakening of the Necrons hidden under the surface of the world, which was also an ancient Necron Tomb World, as they would slumber as long as they believed that their ancient foes among the Aeldari still dominated the galaxy. In a rare display of trust towards xenos for a servant of the Imperium, Angelos attempted to stop the budding conflict between his Blood Ravens and the Aeldari, but it all amounted to naught when a space skirmish destroyed the Spirit Pool of the Dark Reaper Aspect. The psychic scream of the Aeldari souls lost to the hunger of Slaanesh shattered Lsanthranil's Shield and allowed the slumbering Necrons to awaken. Gabriel had no choice but to order the planet destroyed by Exterminatus, and left for the threatened world of Lorn V with the surviving Aspirants. Lorn V When Gabriel arrived on Lorn V, he made contact with the single Aeldari survivor of the battle, Farseer Taldeer, who has been asking for him since teleporting to the Blood Ravens' Battle Barge Litany of Fury. Ignoring accusations of heresy levelled against him by Captain Ulantis of the 9th Company, she convinced Angelos to allow her to take him and a small squad of Blood Ravens to a rip in the Aeldari Webway, made by the Librarian Rhamah in an attempt to reach the Aeldari World of Law, known to the Imperium as Arcadia. There she hoped to find the last, legendary Blade of Vaul, and use it against the waking Necrons. Angelos agreed, again ignoring accusations of heresy leveled at him, and escorted Farseer Taldeer to Arcadia. There, they become engaged in a murderous battle with the Chaos Space Marine warband known as the Prodigal Sons, and their leader, the infamous Chaos Sorcerer Ahriman himself. The ancient Thousand Sons Chief Librarian wanted the Blade of Vaul for himself, and only the desperate efforts of Taldeer and Angelos, combined to a timely intervention by a troupe of Harlequins, managed to force the cataclysmically potent Sorcerer to retreat. To both his and Taldeer's surprise, Angelos was given the blade by the Aeldari Harlequins. Returning to Lorn V, Angelos provided the blade in turn to Farseer Macha, who managed to destroy the Necrons awakening on that world completely using a potent psychic ritual and the Blade of Vaul. With their objective completed, the Aeldari quickly departed, and their Farseer was not heard from or seen afterward. Gabriel then continued his command as Captain of the Watch and met the newly transformed Space Marine Neophyte Quirus Ckrius, whom the Blood Ravens had recruited from Tartarus. The Aeldari Gabriel seems to have a mysterious bond with the Aeldari of the Biel-Tan Craftworld, particularly with Farseer Macha. Despite the condemnation and even threats from his fellow commanders, the Inquisition, the Adepta Sororitas and even from his own friend Isador Akios, Gabriel was stubborn in his attempts to assist the Aeldariand Macha on Tartarus. Surprisingly, the Harlequins of Arcadia refer to him as "Gabriel of the Hidden Heart," and see him as a symbol of hope for the Aeldari even though he is human. The Aurelian Crusades with the Daemonhammer Godsplitter]] Gabriel played a reduced role in the First Aurelian Crusade, as the primary commander during that conflict was the Blood Ravens Force Commander Aramus. Gabriel appeared in the latter half of the Crusade to advise and instruct the player after Captain Davian Thule was incapacitated and interred in a Blood Ravens Dreadnought. He finally appears in person in the last mission of the campaign, still carrying the Daemonhammer Godsplitter he received on Tartarus from Inquisitor Toth. During the invasion of the Aurelian Sub-sector by a splinter fleet of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan, Captain Angelos was onboard the Blood Ravens' Battle Barge Litany of Fury in the Vorga System, completing a great victory over the forces of the Tau. Diverting the Battle Barge to Sub-sector Aurelia, Angelos advised his friend Captain Davian Thule on how to fight those xenos. Unfortunately, as the Litany of Fury was nearing the sub-sector, the Tyranid Hive Mind reached out and threw the starship off-course, also killing most of the Navigators and Astropaths on-board with its potent psychic attack. Angelos sent out one final message before the Battle Barge moved out-of-range, thought to be forever trapped in the Warp. However, Angelos' message did provide Force Commander Aramus in the Aurelian Sub-sector a chance to strike a deadly blow to the Tyranid Hive Fleet. Fortunately, the Blood Ravens fleet somehow managed to emerge from the Warp and arrive in orbit of Typhon Primaris just in time to engage the Hive Fleet. The Litany of Fury launched Drop Pods filled with Blood Ravens Astartes to hold off Tyranid forces planetside, while Angelos himself joined a small team in the final strike against the massive beast, a Hive Tyrant, controlling the local Tyranids. The attack proved successful, and the Hive Fleet was splintered, ending the the Tyranid threat to the sub-sector. Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens armed with the Daemonhammer God-Splitter]] Following the return of the long-lost world of Aurelia to realspace from the Warp during the Second Aurelian Crusade, Angelos directed and ordered a small strike team to combat the Black Legion led by Araghast the Pillager and the returned Chaos Champion Eliphas the Inheritor of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. However, Gabriel was condemned by Captain Apollo Diomedes of the Blood Ravens Honour Guard, who was unaware of the Chaos corruption within the Blood Ravens and their current Chapter Master, Azariah Kyras, which had been brought upon the Chapter by the Greater Daemon of Nurgle, Ulkair. After the Blood Ravens repulsed the assault by Araghast and his Legion, Angelos once again personally led the assault against the Black Legion on Aurelia, and urged his strike team to eliminate Eliphas and the Greater Daemon Ulkair. He is seen at the front of the assault on Aurelia. After the defeat of Ulkair during the Second Aurelian Crusade, the corrupted Blood Ravens Chapter Master and Chief Librarian, Azariah Kyras, declared Gabriel a Traitor and initiated a vicious hunt for the Captain of the 3rd Company and his forces. A bloody Chapter civil war ensued, one that engulfed the entire Aurelian Sub-sector at its peak during the Third Aurelian Crusade. Kyras eventually openly declared his loyalty to Chaos and ascended to become a Daemon Prince. However, Kyras' ascension was far from complete, allowing a strike team of Blood Ravens to destroy the towers of offering and, thus, weaken Kyras enough to harm him. eye replacement he received after defeating Azariah Kyras and becoming Chapter Master.]] After a long and difficult battle the daemon was slain upon the Dead World of Cyrene and its plan was thwarted, but at a great cost to Loyalist forces. Most of Gabriel's forces were slain during the battle and Gabriel himself was viciously struck down by Kyras. After the battle to defeat Kyras was over, Captain Apollo Diomedes retrieved Gabriel's body, only to find that he was still alive, and was able to call off the Inquisition's Exterminatus of all the remaining inhabited worlds of the Aurelian Sub-sector. Afterwards, Gabriel's broken body, having suffered the loss of his right eye and both legs in the fight with Kyras as well as prior wounds earned on Tartarus, was repaired with extensive cybernetic augmentation to replace his missing eye and missing legs and he was elevated to become the new Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens. It is unknown who took his place as the Captain of the 3rd Company. For unknown reasons he later made due without the augmetic right eye and had it removed. Acheron ]] On the world of Acheron, the forces of the Blood Ravens, Orks, and the Craftworld Aeldari would all come to blows once more while fighting over the possession of an artefact believed to be a catastrophic weapon known as the Spear of Khaine. The Blood Ravens under the command of Chapter Master Angelos arrived at the world after running an Inquisitorial blockade to aid Imperial Knight forces under the command of Lady Solaria. During the battle on Acheron, Angelos battled both the Aeldari of Biel-Tan and the Orks of the Warboss Gorgutz. After tracking Gorgutz's forces to The Vault deep beneath Acheron's surface containing the Spear, Angelos was caught in an orbital bombardment unleashed by the vessels of the Inquisition that was intended to destroy the artefact but instead opened the vault it was sealed within. However, Angelos survived the assault and led an attack on the Temple of the Spear of Khaine that overran both the Aeldari and Greenskin forces. When they came to claim the Spear they instead discovered only an ancient trap that freed a Bloodthirster and its daemonic hordes upon realspace. Desperate to contain the daemonic assault, Angelos ordered the Blood Ravens Battle Barge Dauntless to collide with a fissure in Acheron's surface to destroy it and prevent the daemonic infestation from spreading across that region of the Imperium. Angelos was able to teleport to safety before the planet was destroyed by the impact. Wargear *'Power Armour' *'Daemonhammer ''God-Splitter' - ''God-Splitter is a relic Daemonhammer wielded by Gabriel Angelos of the which was gifted to him by Inquisitor Mordecai Toth during the Tartarus Campaign to combat the daemon that inhabited the Chaos relic known as the Maledictum. It is said to contain a recovered fragment of the Wailing Doom, the formidable weapon used by the Aeldari Craftworld Biel-Tan's Avatar of Khaine after its own battle with the Maledictum daemon in the 38th Millennium. See Also *'Blood Ravens' *'Aurelian Crusades' Sources *''White Dwarf'' 305 (UK), "Index Astartes: Knowledge Is Power - The Blood Ravens Space Marine Chapter," by Graham McNeill, pp. 84-88 *''Dawn of War (Novel) by C.S. Goto *''Dawn of War: Ascension (Novel) by C.S. Goto *''Dawn of War: Tempest'' (Novel) by C.S. Goto *''Dawn of War (PC Game) *Dawn of War II'' (PC Game) *''Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising'' (PC Game) *''Dawn of War II - Retribution'' (PC Game) *''Altar of Cyrene'' (Short Story) by Lucien Soulban (Originally published in Inferno! 45) *''Dawn of War III'' (PC Game) es:Gabriel Angelos Category:G Category:A Category:Blood Ravens Category:Characters Category:Imperial Characters Category:Imperium Category:Space Marines Category:Warhammer 40,000 video games